MONTREAL — The director of some of Quebec’s most original television drama, Daniel ‘Podz’ Grou, and producer Pierre Gendron have teamed up to shoot a $3.8-million drama about a troubled boy.

Gendron compares their 10½ to Jean-Claude Lauzon’s acclaimed 1992 film Léolo.

‘The central character isn’t unlike Léolo. He could very easily spiral into madness. The only way he knows how to communicate is through violence,’ Gendron told Playback Daily.

Written by Claude Lalonde — who co-wrote 3 P’tits Cochons, which Gendron also produced — 10½ tells the story of Tommy, who lives in a group home and is viewed as impossible to help by most of the social services professionals he meets. Claude Legault (Minuit le soir, 3 P’tits Cochons) stars as a group home worker who tries to help.

‘It’s shot like documentary. And it is sometimes hard to watch. We want to give people an electroshock with this film,’ says Gendron, who says he was attracted to the script because it touches on two issues that regularly make headlines in Quebec: the high suicide rate and high school dropout rate among men. ‘We have one of the highest adolescent suicide rates in the world, and it is something we don’t talk about.’

Podz, lauded for his work on Minuit le soir, the darkly comic drama about three nightclub bouncers, was selected because he’s a fearless director, says Gendron. ‘He is very sensitive to the interior life of men and he’s not afraid of difficult subjects.’

Robert Naylor plays Tommy. Mélanie Desjardins Chevaudier, Eugénie Beaudry and Blaise Tardif also have roles in the film.

The film was funded by Telefilm Canada, SODEC and Radio-Canada. 10½ will be distributed by Les Films Équinoxe and released in the fall.